It sure felt like fate, a sports writing career come full circle in a restaurant aptly named — Il Vagabondo — for a life spent on the road.

Dining with an old friend in the very same Manhattan eatery where he was once welcomed into the fraternity of local baseball scribes, the Courant's Dom Amore was greeted by a giant photo of Jim Calhoun among the other famous faces adorning the wall.

Amore knew right then that any misgivings he had about trading the diamond for the hardwood were misplaced. "I'm not big on signs," he said on his UConn Insider Podcast debut, "but I'd be crazy not to recognize that when one door closes, another door opens and this is where my career is going to take me."

You'll hear Amore, who's now in his sixth season on the UConn men's beat, break down the injury-riddled Huskies' slow climb back to respectability (7:10), forecast next year's roster (21:40) and answer Twitter questions from fans (25:50). He even squeezed in some baseball talk (36:00), shedding some light on his process for submitting a Hall of Fame ballot in this complicated era.

Have questions you'd like answered on a future episode of the podcast? Send them to Amore on Twitter (@AmoreCourant). You can listen to past episodes here.